“God is Not a Christian. God Accepts as Pleasing Those Who Live by the Best Lights Available to Them That They Can Discern”, Said Desmond Tutu.

This Seventyish Woman Believes That This Belief Could Go a Long Way Toward Healing the Enmity Between Us

God is not a Christian. God accepts as pleasing those who live by the best lights available to them that they can discern. All truth, all sense of beauty, all awareness of goodness, has one source, God, who is not confined to one place, time, or people

Desmond Tutu

Some of us believe in a universal God, some in a particularly Christian or Hebrew or Muslim God, and many don’t believe in a god-principle at all. It’s no wonder there is such a variety of beliefs about the source of life. After all, the concept itself probably cannot be proven. It is a belief and everyone has their own. This story is about some of mine.

Desmond Tutu, who died earlier this week, was the Archbishop of Cape Town, the highest-ranking representative of the Anglican Church in South Africa. He was a friend to the Dalai Llama. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in ending Apartheid. He was a man of wisdom and great influence around the world. I saw this quotation online after his passing and took particular note of these two sentences:

God is not a Christian. God accepts as pleasing those who live by the best lights available to them that they can discern.

I was pleased to see that this great man agreed with me about this point. This statement puts our acceptability to God squarely within our own power. And makes it our responsibility. It does not distinguish between race, sexual orientation, color, gender, creed, or class. Instead, it insists that one’s ultimate ability to please God rests on the choices that a person makes given the knowledge that the person has at the time. What they can discern to be the “best lights.”

Maya Angelou

This reminds me of a quotation that is a favorite of mine. Though sometimes attributed to Oprah Winfrey (it must be one of her favorites too) but originating with Maya Angelou is one that I often use with clients. I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better. In other words, if you have made mistakes in your life — and I know hardly anyone exempt from this — it is ok. If you can learn from these, and make better choices afterward, this is all that can be expected of a normal imperfect human. You can’t do better until you have learned the lessons. Using this idea, I encourage clients to begin to respect the process of their lives instead of holding themselves to impossible standards and hating themselves because of ugly parts in their past. This acceptance is key to self-respect.

Jesus

Jesus was another person who spoke out against following the trappings of religion, including the artificial divisions between rich and poor, one race and another, “sinners” vs “the righteous”. Instead, he advocated taking care of the poor, feeding the hungry., nursing the sick, in a word, loving everyone.

One way of looking at Desmond Tutu’s words is that your good actions, not your adherence to the rules of any religion, are the way to find favor with God. And that access to God is not limited to any particular “place, time, or people.” I believe Jesus would have agreed with this. Following the laws and traditions of their religion instead of living ethically, got a lot of money changers kicked out of the temple. I am not a Bible scholar and I am sure the situation is more complex than I am making it here. But I believe that Jesus’ whole ministry was focused on getting this one idea across to his followers — that we should forget the rules — love one another, be good to those who are not good to us, take care of the poor, feed the hungry, etc. You get the idea. This is doing the right thing. Our main job. All the rest is just distraction.

No claim on God

I don’t believe that Christians have some kind of ultimate claim on God. God must be bigger than that. If there is a universal God-principle, it must be bigger than the universe, must be the god of everything- not just us measly little people here on this planet dividing ourselves up into nations and races and political parties. And it isn’t just for same-sex couples or white Christian churchgoers. Or binary gendered persons. Or “normal” people. It must encompass the whole enormous range of different versions of people as well as other creatures, if there are any, in the universe.

Knowing that we have a responsibility toward all the other peoples on earth, could we not focus on getting along with each other, on finding common ground, on treating others as we would have them treat us, instead of fighting? On making love the main thing?

Since a lot of this is speculation anyway, I propose that we make as our primary focus to do the right thing according to the “best lights” that are available to us that we can discern at any given moment. At least for individuals, this comes down to making the most loving decision you can in each situation you face. Doing your best to take care of your family and neighbors, sharing your resources with people who need more. Ignoring differences, being loving to everyone, including yourself, as often as you can manage. You know what to do.

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